My little Sophie
has a cold, bless her. She’s finding it difficult to breathe naturally. She was a little bit worried that she would forget to breathe through her mouth, as opposed to her blocked nose, in the night.
As I kissed her goodnight, she said,
“Mummy says there’s a part of the brain that helps you remember to breathe at night.”
“That’s right,” I said, words like ‘autonomous’ and ‘medulla oblongata’ and, strangely, ‘hypothalamus’ all jostling for attention. But before I could say anything, she continued,
“But why isn’t there part of the brain that helps you not to worry about not remembering to breathe?”
I sympathize. Perhaps I should send her to talk with Noah?
Dear Sophie, some neuroscientists DO think there are areas in the brain that help you not to worry about not remembering to breathe. These are called the medial prefrontal and anterior cingulate regions, also thought to be involved in mentalization and introspective thinking (for a bedtime story on this, go here). There’s probably some hippocampal stuff going on as well…
But Sophie, please be aware that such studies utilizing fMRI to dissect complex emotional experiences are not as powerful, can suffer from significant statistical bias and in the end, simply report correlations. If this sounds confusing, don’t worry. You’re in good company considering the sorry state of neuro reporting in the media. Nightie, night!
Your pal, Noah
Now I won’t be able to sleep either, worrying about correlations and whether or not there’s something to stop me worrying about breathing. But I love the post and Noah’s soothing letter!
How about a place in the brain that just keeps you from worrying altogeter?!? At least I would sometimes really really like that….
Åsa – It’s there, you just need to know how to find your way in when necessary ;)
One of my family has sleep apnea, and it was really scary until the docs sorted out a machine thingie to do the remembering. But better not tell Sophie such a disorder exists.
Oh, I don’t know, Jenny. Given what I know of Sophie she’ll write a research grant to look into it.
Darren: It’s there, you just need to know how to find your way in when necessary ;)
ahh… wonder if this means that I haven’t really needed it so far… or that I am just failing to connect :) Any suggestions on how to do that?
The Dalai Lama is a big supporter of funding for Neuroscience research. He recommends meditation, somewhat unsurprisingly…
…all together now, breathe through one nostril, listen to the sound of one hand clapping, concentrate on the navel of the universe…
ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
… but what’s the political gain?
Richard. Does this mean Sophie is my competition now?
Could be. Are you worried yet?
How could I compete with grant writing Grant? I’m screwed!
The RSS feed to your Nature blogs is no longer working. Or is it just mine?
UM, possibly just yours — seems OK here.
MT4?
How very (para)sympathetic of you.
I am currently reading a book all about the human body and how it works, a few pages at a time for bedtime with Junior Wintle #1. He wasn’t worried at all by the idea that your nervous system just keeps things ticking over at night. JW#2, however, would be terrified if she thought about it.
Which is why I’m not going to introduce her to Noah… ;)
Strikes me that facing your fears is a more productive attitude.